Dear JIES community,
The school year is well on its way now and we have had an enjoyable Celebration of Learning and Parents’ Morning. The PTA too has been up and running since the beginning of the academic year. This post is definitely overdue, however, we would still like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about who we are, what we do and how and why you should get involved. The PTA at JIES is a parent volunteer organization that supports the JIES community (students, parents and staff) by encouraging student activities and community building. What does that mean? We organize school-wide events, fund-raising initiatives and programs that support parental involvement in the classroom. Not only that, but we also work as a link between teachers and administration and the parent community. We are hoping this blog will help you understand the work we do, encourage you to participate and help you stay connected with important school events.
Most importantly, we would like to let you know that the PTA is available to everyone in the JIES community, as we believe that to achieve excellence in education, the whole community should be directly involved in school activities. All parents are invited to help and contribute with their knowledge and experience. For example, volunteering can be a wonderful opportunity to help you meet the community and get to know other parents. Please let us know how we can help you.
Here are some ideas of how you can support the JIES PTA:
- Contribute: The PTA is open to your ideas and feedback. If you would like to contribute in any way, please send an email to the PTA president or to your class representative.
- Come to our events: Bring your family and help us build a caring and supportive community.
- Volunteer: We could always use a helping hand.
- Be a class representative: As you will see below, we are still short on class representatives for grades 1 and 4.
It is important to note that if you have any specific issues regarding your child, you should get in touch directly with the teacher or school management.
Finally, do check our blog regularly for updates. For now, we are very happy to announce that PTA has agreed to support the school for the upgrade of new desks and chairs for Grade 2 and 3. We look forward to lend more support to the JIES community throughout this year.
Thank you for your support,
The JIES PTA team.
Introducing the PTA:
President: Oren Kaufman (skaufman@jies.jp)
(The president acts as a bridge between parents and administration, proactively making the school aware of important issues for the families. The president is also the chair at PTA meetings).
Vice President: Emily Tsai
(The Vice President performs the duties of the President in his/her absence – works closely with other PTA members to coordinate and plan PTA/ school events).
Secretary: Nicole Yamada
(The secretary is responsible for the minutes of PTA`s meetings and to-do lists as well as the PTA`s blog entries).
Accountant: Rumi Yoshioka
(The accountant monitors and manages PTA bank account for donations, payments, and current balance; monitors income and expenditure against approved PTA activity budgets).
Gardening Project Leader: Mareike Hornburg
(Our gardening leader will work with teachers in different gardening projects in the school front garden).
School Representative: Mr. Sam
(The school representative acts a primary liaison between faculty and PTA – raises faculty concerns to PTA, and provides faculty perspectives in PTA discussions).
Class Representatives:
(Representatives get to know families in respective class, raise class concerns and suggestions to PTA for discussion and help with planning and organizing family activities within the class based on interest among families).
- Kindergarten: Andreas Schuster, Zehra Mercan
- Grade 1: Representative needed!
- Grade 2: Hatice Deniz and Bibi Misbah
- Grade 3: Yae Setouguchi
- Grade 4: Representative needed!
- Grade 5/6: Andreas Schuster
Check out our upcoming events. We are looking forward to seeing you!
December: We have got two big events lined up for December:
1) Festa Harajuku! On December 2nd, 2017. A wonderful opportunity to get to know the local community in this Jinsho’s annual festival. Come and join this local event, get to know the community.
2) Year End Party. Just an event for parents and teachers to socialize in a semi-formal setting. We will be having this event on December 8, 2017.